It was the morning that Faith’s youth mission trip was leaving for New Orleans. Club 218, the summer day-camp for underprivileged children (which was itself inspired by an earlier mission trip to West Virginia), was also meeting that day, and one of the leaders was there early, getting ready.
Before the mission trip caravan left, one of the participants went downstairs to visit with the Club 218 leader. He had served with Club 218 in past years, but his work schedule prevented it this summer. He was curious how the program was going this year.
In the course of the conversation, he noted that, while his family does belong to another church in town, they rarely, if ever, participate. He had started serving at Club 218 only because a couple of his friends had talked him into it. But from there, he got connected to FLY (Faith Lutheran Youth) and now he was heading out on a mission trip to serve Christ by serving others.
The FLY mission trips are highlights of Faith’s ministry each summer and we rightly focus on how they extend our church’s ministry across the country. We might miss, though, how they also extend our ministry right here in Hutchinson. For at least one young man, this year’s trip was a significant milestone on his journey of faith, all because other youth on fire for Christ invited him to join in their service to “the least of these.”
How else is God reaching out through Faith to bring Christ’s love into the lives of others? What seed might a kind word or an invitation plant today? How might God use you and me to reach out to others in order to draw them into a saving relationship of faith in Jesus?
In Mark 4, Jesus told the Parable of the Sower, who lavishly threw precious seed in every direction. Much of it fell on hard ground or was choked out by thorns. But “other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundred-fold.”
Like the sower, we can’t control or predict where the seed of God’s Word will take root and grow, but that’s not our job. Like the sower, our job is to cast God’s precious seed in every direction and then marvel, not that so much of it seems to be wasted, but when God brings amazing, abundant growth from our small efforts.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Scott Grorud
P.S. Do you know where the name “Club 218” originated? It is from the Bible verse, James 2:18: “But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.” That, in turn, inspired the Club 218 motto: “Let Your Life Be a Testament.” What a powerful witness from young members of our church and community!
